The Honorable Cody

When Buffalo Bill Cody died in 1917, he was the best-known person on earth. But the world wasn't done with him. In this richly wrought novel, Richard Wheeler depicts the struggle to commandeer his remains for commercial purposes.The owner of the Denver Post, Harry Tammen, wanted to bury him outside of Denver, as a tourist attraction. Cody wanted to be buried in his namesake town, Cody, Wyoming. His estranged wife Louisa had other ideas, and so did his sisters. So did Cody's friends. The result was a gaudy free-for-all, in which Tammen prevailed, and the old scout was finally buried on Lookout Mountain, outside of Denver.The author gives us a telling look at the sycophants and connivers who surrounded the showman. He paints a tender portrait of the old man, who was besieged by a lot of people with a lot of schemes. Cody had many friends, including Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull, who remembered the old man fondly, and these people, too, have their say in this penetrating and...